"Notable Pacific Bomber"
From The Age, Saturday February 19, 1944

One of the designers of the Beaufort bomber, which is to-day smashing Japanese installations in the South-West Pacific, was loaned to the Japanese 13 years ago to advise them on aeroplane construction.

He is Leslie. G. Frise, now chief aircraft engineer of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which created both the Beaufort and the Beaufighter. To-day the Australian-built adaptation of the British Beaufort flown by R.A.A.F. pilots is making air-war history against the Japanese and is translating Frise's theoretical lessons into up to-date practical demonstrations of modern aerial warfare. The annals of the R.A.A.F. are rich with tales of gallant exploits by Australian pilots in their Australian-built bombers. One told with pride by members of a bomber squadron is the story of Squadron Leader Owen Price, who, single-handed, tackled a large concentration of enemy vessels in Simpson Harbour, at Rabaul.

Squadron Leader Price was flying over Rabaul at night and looked down on a cluster of eight enemy cruisers. With them were 14 destroyers and a dozen merchant vessels. He put his plane into a dive as searchlights blazed into his eyes and shellfire streamed up at him. Almost at water level he released his aerial torpedo, and saw it tear into the side of one of the largest vessels. Then his crippled plane shuddered and crashed into the sea. The odds against the lone pilot were tremendous, but he had scored a deathblow, and added another success to the long list credited to the Beaufort bomber squadrons.

MANY MODIFICATIONS

Much of the success of the Beaufort in the South-West Pacific is due to the care and thought that were put into the adaptation of plane to local conditions. Before the plane went into production 25,000 drawings had to be altered and 3000 additional blue-prints of engineering plans made since the Beaufort went into production is about 1,600,000 which have been used at the rate of 15,000 a week major modifications total 950 and minor changes run into the thousands.

In the Beaufort factories there are no frills and little that is spectacular. Business-like men and women are doing a business-like job as if they had been trained to do it all their lives.

The Beauforts are an all-Australian construction job. Mounted on the engine is the machine’s only decoration-a small plaque of a blue and gold American eagle. That is the Pratt and Whitney manufacturer’s plate, but even the engine is made in Australia under licence. The propellers are made here, too and their manufacture involved installation of heavy forging plants, which a 35,000-lb. Drop hammer, which is the largest in Australia and one of the sixth largest in the world.

Mr. H. Hanford Stevens, of the Beaufort Division of the Department of Aircraft Production, says that the Australian Beaufort is an improvement on the British original, and the model has since been adopted by the Bristol Company in Britain. The experimental division has been responsible for improvements. It redesigned the tail and increased stability; it reduced the use of ball bearings in many places; it substituted felt for rubber; it eliminated the tall wheel-shimmy" that had long worried both pilot and manufacturer, and it designed a better gun turret.

POSTWAR POSSIBILITIES

The reconnaissance range of the Beauforts Australia is building is over 2000 miles. Bomb and aerial torpedo loads carried by the planes cannot be disclosed, but on them the range of the plane largely depends. In 1942 a Beaufort flew non-stop from Darwin to Adelaide1770 miles-in nine hours. If that machine had instead been flying north it could have gone very close to places like Singapore or Panay, in the Philippines.

Performances of warplanes like the Beaufort are interesting. to those who visualise the post-war possibilities of aviation. The builders of the American Liberator bomber-the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation-are now telling Americans that no spot on earth is more than 60 hours' flying time from any local airport. The corporation's experts place London 22 hours' flying from Chicago. Similar comparisons can be made in Australia. A Beaufort has flown from Adelaide to Perth in eight hours. It takes the trans‑continental train something like 80 hours to do the trip. A Beaufort has flown from Adelaide to Sydney in about three hours, while the train does the trip in approximately 30 hours.

Leslie Frise is looking ahead. He is looking to the post-war time, when his war birds will fly on peacetime missions. Already he has completed detailed plans of a "Queen Mary of the air," - and production of this aircraft is now a spare-time occupation of his company ' The giant peace-time machine is revolutionary in many ways-in structure, motive power and outward appearance. It is still on the secret list, but a few details can be given.

Weight of the plane, without passengers or freight, is 130 tons, and special motors totalling 20,000-horse power power it. It, will have a cruising speed of about 250 miles an hour, and will carry 150-day passengers across the Atlantic in about 15 hours. Cost of the trip is estimated at £50 a head. Truly a relative worthy of the Beaufort.